Airships are back in fashion!

I don't know why, but last summer airships caught my attention. I already recognized on this post that I do not know much about this very peculiar type fo aircraft, but later on, airship sightings during the London Olympics led me to write a couple more posts about this topic (see them here 1 & 2).

So, no wonder today I read with interest this piece published on the BBC about a British firm, Hybrid Air Vehicles Limited, that is working on an airship project that might end up having multiple applications, both civilian and military (the project was originally commissioned by the US Army).

I can see a  market niche for airship commercial air travel. Do you?

Amazing video taken from a Vueling airliner while intercepted by a French Mirage fighter jet

Ever since the terrible events of 9/11 in the US, commercial airlines that can not be properly identified or that report some sort of incident are regularly intercepted and escorted by fighter jets...How does it feel to see fighter jets approaching while you look through the window in mid-flight? Thanks to this extraordinary video that is making the rounds on social media channels we can see how it looks like!

Vueling flight VY8366 was flying from Málaga (AGP) to Amsterdam (AMS), when it was intercepted by a French Air Force Mirage 2000 fighter jet on May 27th at around 21.30 CET.

According to Dutch blogger FMCNL (that became famous in aviation blogger circles because of its excellent and timely coverage of NATO's Libyan campaign), the intercept took place just South-West of Paris and was what it's called a "QRA Tango" or Quick Reaction Alert Training.

You can watch it here. It is really spectacular!